The room we walked into was luxurious and huge. The floor was made of black marble and the walls were painted blood red. It was some type of large common room with large, black leather sofas, a fireplace in the corner, high ceilings with black chandeliers, and a few expensive area rugs scattered around the floor. There was a bar set to the left next to the fireplace that was filled with hundreds of bottles; some filled with alcohol, some filled with blood.
Several vampires were milling around the room. They all stopped as we entered and bowed their heads at the vampire leading me before turning glares in my direction. I didn’t know why I was here or why they hated me. I just hoped I’d find out what they planned to do with me soon.
Mr. Insanity looked back at me as we kept walking. “Don’t worry. They won’t bother you. Bothering people is my thing,” he whispered to me before adding out loud, “We are not to be disturbed! I want to dine in peace tonight.”
I heard several murmured responses before the vampire quickly started pulling me forward again.
He brought me through some double doors and into a room that had a long dining table. The room was decorated in much the same style as the last, but with grey walls instead of red. The table was at least fifteen feet long, making me realize this was a type of nest house. There were windows here with black curtains drawn open to reveal the night sky, so the cells had been underground. Unfortunately, the windows were barred, so there was definitely no escape from them.
Mr. Insanity lead me to the far end of the table before shoving me down in the seat next to the end and pulling the bag from my head. He sat in the end seat that was much larger and more decorative than the others at the table.
Mr. Insanity grabbed the teapot sitting between us and poured what looked like blood tea, setting the cup in front of me. He sat back after pouring his own cup and leaned the chair on it’s back legs, rocking as he inspected me.
“Drink up. It’ll make you strong,” he said, waving his hand at my cup. It was a little strange seeing this vampire sipping from a tiny teacup like this was Sunday brunch.
This was getting too annoying. I’d had enough with his games. “I don’t want any damn tea. I want answers!” I knocked the teacup away from me, spilling its contents across the table. He glanced at it with a smile before setting his chair and cup down, leaning his chin on his clasped hands.
“Fine. No tea for you. What do you want to know?”
“Who are you? Why am I here?”
He sighed. “You are here because I need to keep you safe. But who I am is all very complicated.”
I was a bit surprised his answer was so normal. It was the first time he hadn’t said something in riddles. Well, mostly. That bit about who he was still irked me.
“Safe? You call this keeping me safe? I was perfectly fine where I was! And why would you care about my safety anyways?”
He clucked his tongue at me. “If you’d been paying attention to your surroundings, you would’ve seen you were not in fact safe. Ergo, I brought you here to protect you myself.”
“I’ve met you before. I know I have, but I can’t figure out when or where I’ve met you.”
“Maybe you have. Maybe you haven’t. Who knows?” There was the riddled reply.
I rubbed the bridge of my nose in aggravation. This was going to take forever.
“Can you at least tell me why you care about my safety?” I made air quotes with my fingers. His idea of safety was a load of shit. Who kidnaps someone then claims it’s for protective reasons?
Another vampire suddenly barged into the room and was about to speak, but Mr. Insanity was out of his chair and in the vampire’s face within a second, his hand around the man’s throat.
“You were told not to disturb me!” He yelled before pushing his other hand into the vampire’s chest, pulling out his heart. The man could only gape at Mr. Insanity before his body crumpled to ash.
I stared in shock as the vampire walked back to his seat, heart in hand, and sat back down. He laid the heart on a plate gently and smiled at me again, licking the blood from his fingers like everything was completely normal.
“Sorry about that. I hate insubordination. You being here is not to be known by anyone,” he said as he stared at me, continuing to suck the blood from his fingers.
“Can you just like stop licking your fingers and answer my questions?” I asked in disgust. I tried keeping my tone even, not showing the fear I was finally feeling after that display.
He smiled and grabbed the napkin next to his tea, wiping the blood away and throwing the napkin over his shoulder.
“I’m sorry about the chains and you being knocked out, but they were necessary. Viper and my other men were not to harm you when they grabbed you, and for hitting you, one’s been punished. You are mine and I don’t take kindly to someone messing with what’s mine. They are the select few who were allowed to know of your presence here.”
I scoffed. “I’m not yours. I don’t know you and I belong to someone else. Two someone’s actually.” I crossed my arms in defiance. Who the hell was this guy to lay claim to me?
“Ah. The wolf and the agent. Yes. Diego explained that one to me. While it doesn’t bother me to share, it does bother me when you’re hurt,” his face fell into a dark leer as he stared at his cup, swirling its contents around.
“If that’s true, then why did your men attack me in the alley?” I retorted, shuddering a bit at remembering them once again.
“They weren’t following my orders. They’re lucky your agent got to them first. Their deaths would’ve been a lot more painful if it’d been me. Alas, that was my master’s doing and the very reason only the few who helped capture you are in the know,” he replied without looking up.
This was all so damn confusing. He kidnapped me and chained me up, yet he didn’t want me hurt, was claiming he was protecting me, and was convinced I was his. Wait...
I leaned forward and stared at him dumbfounded. “How did you know about Hollis saving me?”
His eyes flicked up to meet mine, boring into me with a look I couldn’t decipher. “I’ve watched you for years, Lucy Bryant. I know more about you than you can fathom.” He smiled and set his tea down, leaning his chair on its back legs once again and weaving his hands behind his head. His torso was on full display beneath the leather jacket, causing my stomach to stir with a weird sense of desire. I stamped it down and averted my eyes to the bloody heart on the table. It wasn’t a very appealing sight, but it beat thinking things about my captor that I didn’t want to.
“Why the drug? What’s your end goal with that?” I asked him, skirting away from the last subject. I needed to process why he’d been following me or knew about me before I broached that one. I figured if I was stuck here for now, I may as well be getting all the info I could to help Hollis if I escaped.
“It is not my end goal. I created the drug because I had no choice, but that’s all.”
“Why do you have no choice? Is this master of yours the one in control of everything?”
He set his chair down and leaned his elbows on the table. His smile faded quickly to a sneer and his eyes glazed over with dark red veins across the white of them. It was a terrifying change. One second he was completely there, the next, gone.
Whoever his master was had done something to him. My guess was mind control like what the drug was doing to all the other vampires, but this was on a more mental level. It was possible by master, he meant maker. I couldn’t believe it had taken me this long to figure it out. His maker was using the drugs and his power over him as his maker to keep him doing his dirty work. The signs were there. This vampire had mood swings going from normal to sociopathic, and he was sometimes completely out of his mind and forgetful. It all fit.
“I’ll tell you what I can,” he finally said, shaking his head as his eyes changed back to normal. “My name and who I am to you will hopefully make you see that you can trust me, Lucy. But only if you agree to drink some tea. I don’t nee
d you losing your shit because you’ve been underfed. I’m going to need you strong if either of us is going to survive what we have to do next.”
I stared at him a moment, pondering if I truly wanted to hear what he was about to tell me. On one hand, I wanted answers. Which he seemed to be the only one able to give me. But on the other, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to hear it.
After deliberating it, I finally nodded and let him get up to grab me another cup from a table nearby. He set it in front of me and poured the brown and red mixture for me, adding some honey in for a little sweetness. After he stirred it around he sat back and waited.
Taking that as a sign he wouldn’t talk until I drank, I gripped the small handle of the cup and sipped. This was the strangest fucking thing to be doing. If someone had told me the day before the stakeout that I’d be captured, then forced to drink tea with a vampire who just ripped a guy’s heart out without blinking, I’d have laughed.
The next words he said were enough to make me drop my tea, breaking yet another cup.
“My name is Vex and I’m your maker.”
I gaped at him, not believing what he was telling me.
He chuckled at my expression before grabbing my hand with some force and pulling me closer to him to whisper.
“I can see it in your eyes you want to deny the pull you feel for me. So, allow me to tell you a story, darling. Then maybe you’ll see I am what I say and that you are the most precious thing there has ever been in my existence.”
Chapter Seventeen
Forty-three years ago…
Vex
It’s laughable that humans were trying to fight our battles for us.
What had turned from my nightly stroll to find something – well someone – to eat before I got down to work, had turned into me dodging molotov’s from angry spectators as they trashed businesses owned by suspected vampires. Baltimore, Maryland was a joke right now. The police had organized a strike, refusing to go after vampires without fair wages to accompany the danger of killing us. The humans they protected were either mad at them for refusing to protect them, or taking matters in their own hands and trying to destroy us. The ones I was laughing at though, were the few dozen standing on the outskirts of the protest, holding signs up demanding equal rights for us.
What a bunch of wankers.
I pulled the hood of my coat up further, covering my face from the light of the fires dancing around me. As long as I stayed hidden, I could keep moving without issue. I had a job to do.
“Stop the violence! Live in peace!” I heard a lilting voice yelling within the group of do-gooders.
I peeked at the woman whose voice carried over the others from beneath my hood and almost froze in place.
She was beautiful. I’d been alive for longer than two hundred years, and never in all my life had I witnessed such an earthy beauty. Her pale gold locks were twisted in to long braids. Her skin tanned and flawless beneath a dark gold bohemian dress that barely kept the chill of the coming winter. A knit hat set upon her head and gloved hands waved around a sign. Her eyes were like spring; greens the shade of grass with splashes of light browns. She shouted those words over and over, stomping her boot covered feet as she marched back and forth along the line of protestors. Even from where I stood a hundred feet away, I could smell the sweetness of her blood.
I wasn’t sure what made me stop when I heard her voice, but I knew without a doubt I wanted her the second I could smell her. Not for just one moment. Not for a meal. I wanted her by my side for eternity. I’d never made another vampire, never having the urge to. For once, I was thinking of the possibilities of not having to wander this world alone. My maker was the only one I had, and he treated me like nothing more than a dog, doing his bidding while taking credit for everything I did. I didn’t want to follow him, but it was the price I paid to be taken from the asylum my family had locked me away in.
The funny thing about asylums from my time, was people were put in them for anything from hearing voices, to being attracted to the same gender. I was thrown in for having an eye for chemistry. I messed around with chemicals, occasionally using them on myself, and it sometimes had adverse effects on me. That was what drugs did. For simply being addicted to things like opiates and tranquilizers, I was an embarrassment to my family. So, they did the only thing people did back then for troubled minds; they threw me into a nut house. My master may have saved me from endless rounds of shock therapy, but it was all for selfish reasons. He saw me for my talents of dealing with combustible mixtures and turned me to use me.
Looking at this girl, was like looking at hope in corporeal form. She was water to a man dying in the desert. A breath of air, to lungs cut off from oxygen. Sunlight, to the vampire who could no longer walk beneath its rays. She represented everything I thought I could never have after I was changed or even before. I couldn’t get out of my predicament, but I could make it easier to bear if I had someone like her at my side.
Master would be angry for making a pit stop before returning to him, but honestly, I didn’t care for the consequences. As long as I could see her for just a bit longer, it’d be worth it.
So, I waited for her to wander off alone.
I watched her for a while within the shadows of a nearby alley. The way she moved. The way her face lit up with conviction as she screamed against the violent actions of her fellow man. As the riot began to die down, she broke off from her group. They had accomplished nothing, but she still smiled victoriously as she collected a bag, slung it over her shoulder and said goodbye to her friends.
This was just the first of many times I saw her. After that night, I followed her again and began making it a nightly routine. She showed up throughout the whole protest, so it wasn’t hard to find her each time. When the protesting finally ended with the police getting what they were on strike for, I relied on information I dug up on her each night. I figured out her name was Lucy Bryant and she had finished college not long ago. She was an amazing artist and had a thing for chocolate ice cream. Each night I found her, I learned more, which only made it harder not to want her.
One night, I actually met her. It wasn’t planned. I had watched her getting a coffee in a local cafe and settling in to read a book. My original plan was to casually walk by and continued on my way. Unfortunately, I was so busy watching her as I past, I missed the man walking on the other side of me in the opposite direction. His shoulder hit mine, which normally wouldn’t have done anything, except I was distracted. I lost balance and my hip rammed into her table, knocking her coffee into her lap.
She jumped up in surprise, letting out a girly scream as the hot liquid soaked her long, flowing skirt and burned her skin.
“Bollocks! I’m so sorry!” I shouted, grabbing some of her napkins and handing them to her.
“It’s alright. Things happen,” she replied, taking the napkins from me and dabbing at the stain. She pushed her braids behind her ear and threw the napkins on the table before looking up and smiling at me. Her smile changed when she saw me, though, undoubtedly knowing I was a vampire. Even with the dim lighting outside the cafe, there was no mistaking my eyes and skin color. For the first time, I almost felt ashamed about being what I was.
I cleared my throat and averted my eyes. “I can be a bit clumsy sometimes.”
“The best people are usually clumsy, I think.” She replied.
Her soft tone made me look back up at her, only to find a curious look lighting her face. She wasn’t horrified by me. Though as she stared, I lost my nerve.
“Sorry again,” I said before shoving my hands in my pockets and hightailing it away from her. I didn’t turn back as a walked, but I did stop once I reached a corner and hid, peering around the side to see her sitting again. However, her eyes weren’t on the book in her hand, but in the direction which I ran.
My master had finally questioned where I was disappearing to each night. When I explained, he looked down on me in condescension, thinking it beneath us f
or me to change someone because I wanted to, rather than because they were needed. He chastised me and stated his disapproval, telling me to forget her and be prepared to leave soon. He was furious for my dalliances and knew by taking me away from there, he was ripping away the one chance I had to make myself happy. That’s how he kept me where he wanted me. It was how he played his games. Well, I would make sure he wouldn’t win this round.
Tonight, had to be the night or I’d lose her forever. I was angry with myself for not having done it sooner, but at least it would give her a chance to live as long as it took me to find her again.
When I found her walking home from her friend’s house on my last night, I followed her for two blocks before rushing into position to a spot just ahead of her. I hoped when I was done changing her, she would forgive me for taking her life. I didn’t care how long it took, I would gain her trust and whisk her away with me when I managed to find a way out of my master’s grasp. I could order her to do what I wanted, since being her maker gave me influence over her, but I didn’t want that.
As she passed the alley I hid in, I grabbed her from behind. Her scream was muffled by my gloved hand as I pulled her into the darkness with me. I quickly sank my fangs into her neck, taking in her blood. She fought me for a moment, but after peering over her shoulder to see who had just captured her, she just stopped. Her beautiful body sagged in my arms, completely relaxing. I held on for dear life, not daring to let go until I knew I had taken all I needed to change her.
I slid down the wall behind me, cradling her in my arms as we collapsed together. Her eyes stared up at me blankly when I adjusted her across my lap, searching through the haze for answers as to why I would do this to her.
“In time, you will forgive me, darling. For now, drink,” I soothed, biting into my wrist and bringing it close to her. I had to get my blood in her fast or she’d die before the change could happen. I refused to let that happen. But her hand lifted and she grabbed my wrist gently, stopping me from putting it to her mouth.
Blood: Under the Skin Book 1 Page 12